Olivia's wedding

My sister got married Memorial Day weekend and it was such a beautiful wedding.  She was a gorgeous bride, just stunning!  Preston was a ring bearer, I was a bridesmaid and Ashten was a flower girl.  It was the least stressful wedding I have ever been a part of.  Maybe Olivia was stressed as the bride, but I never saw it or felt rushed or pressured to hurry up.

We started off the morning with an early workout at her Crossfit gym.  I was pretty nervous since I've never done Crossfit before, but besides not being able to do all the pull-ups, I was able to do everything else.  It felt kind of good to hold my own with those tough Crossfit girls!  After the workout we came home and showered before heading over to the reception site to set up.  My mom met us there with all the decorations and we just put the centerpieces on the tables and stuff like that.  Ashten and my niece, Madison, were working very hard, as you can see!

From there, Ashten and I went over the hair salon to get our hair done.  Ashten loved this part, she loves the hair salon!  She especially liked it this time because they had orange juice and fancy glasses to drink from, she probably had 4 glasses of juice!!  

We hung out at the hair salon the rest of the morning and then when everyone was done, we went back to my sister's house to get dressed and take a few getting-ready pictures.  

Then it was on to the ceremony!  We got there early and Olivia hid so Dan wouldn't see her before she walked down the aisle.  

Melt my heart!

The ceremony was so sweet.  Olivia and Dan wrote their own vows and they were so personal and sweet!  It was super windy and my dress my have flown up at one point, so I held it securely down at my side the rest of the time.

At the last minute, Ashten got stage fright and wouldn't walk down, so just
Madison and Preston did.

After the wedding we did a few quick pictures with all the extended family at the wedding site and then the wedding party rode a bus to a different outdoor location for more pictures.  I love their photographer, she was so quick and efficient and got some cute poses.  So much better than our wedding photographer.  Over 2 hours of pictures - not kidding!!!  My dad took this picture right behind the photographer and it's probably my favorite picture of all of us at the wedding!

After that, it was time to party!!  Eating dinner, dancing, it was a blast.  We stayed till the kids dropped, literally!  Ashten fell asleep about 5 feet from the loud dance floor sitting up in a chair.  We knew it was our cue to go.

 

 Olivia invited the rest of us sisters to be part of her father/daughter dance towards the end of the song.  It was such a sweet time, all of us dancing with my dad at once!

The happy couple!  Congratulations Dan and Olivia!

Mosaics

One of my most favorite toys of the kids is this mosaic thing.  I don't even know where we got it, but it's so good for creativity and arts and crafts time.  Its also a nice, quiet, one-person activity for when one kid needs a break or is being left out.  And I love seeing the creations that they come up with!

Choir concert at school

Brayden and Logan were in the school choir this year.  By the end of the year Brayden REALLY didn't want to be anymore, but we made him finish out the year since he made the committment.  But we really don't care if he quits, we think the program is very poorly run!

For example, their end-of-the-year choir concert included 5 choir songs and at least 20 karaoke-style solos sung by various choir members and the concert lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes!!!!  BO-RING!!!!!!  Brayden and Logan didn't participate by singing a solo, so they just had to sit there through those parts.  This picture pretty much sums up how we all felt!!!

Since Chris, Preston, Ashten and I were beyond bored, we somehow entertained ourselves for a little bit taking silly pictures with my phone!

Yep, we were a little bored, or way far past beingbored!  The choir teacher could have done a lot of things differently when planning this concernt, #1 being to maybe be honest with some of these kids and their singing skills!!  No 10-year-old girl has any business rapping a Katy Perry song!  Nor does that same girl have any business singing 5 solos at a choir concert! 

End of the year church stuff

In May the kids had several things at church to wrap up all the hard work and fun they have had this year in Kidz Choir and AWANA.  First off was the musical.  It was called iAm, with a play on apps and i-devices.  My favorite part when when they did the glow sticks choreography.

Brayden had a speaking part, he was Aaron the APPrentice.  He had a cool costume and delivered his lines perfectly!

Logan had several acting parts and said a verse during one song.  He was the "peas" for a food fight app and Moses in the battle of the Amalekites.

Then a week later they had their AWANA awards night.  All the kids did so well working on and learning their verses throughout the year and we are so proud of them.  They all finished their books ahead of schedule and were able to stay motivated till the end!

 

 

 
Ashten was chosen as the girl from Cubbies to accompany the flag for the flag ceremony.  Her choir also sang.  She did great!  She really loves singing and being in front of people, so she really enjoyed getting to do these things.

Our church isn't doing Kidz Choir or AWANA next year, which we are pretty bummed about.  The kids are sad too.  We are still discussing what we are going to do about that, whether we do what our church has planned instead or find a different church to attend AWANA at.  There are a lot of variables to discuss and we need to pray for wisdom!

Last Day of School

Today is the last day of school for the boys.  In fact, I have to leave in about 10 minutes to go pick them up since they have an early release.  I am so proud of the boys this year.  They all did great in school and their teachers had nothing but great things to say about them.  I know they learned a lot and had a good school year.  I can't believe we now have a 6th grader, 4th grader, 2nd grader and a little girl that only has one more year to go before kindergarten!!  Where does the time go?

Journey to Healthy

For the past one and half plus years, I have been on a journey to become more healthy.  It started with a desire to lose weight, so I began working out and counting calories.  I ate "diet" and "low-fat" foods whenever possible and all kinds of sugar-free and fake sugar stuff thinking it was better for me because it was lower calorie.  I was doing the best I knew how to lose weight and get healthy.

But, as I have learned over the past few months, whole foods that are not processed or as minimally processed as possible are actually best for my body. Foods high in healthy fats are better than foods that have the fat taken out (and then sugar added back in to make it taste good) to make them less caloric. Our bodies were created to need fat, but not the gross, processed junk fats, but the real, whole, God-made ones.  For example, I just recently learned that whole milk is the best grocery store milk option because it is the least processed. Other milks like 1% or even worse, skim, have most of the fat taken out and then they have to add back in white coloring and vitamins A and D to make it like the other milks, which just makes it more processed. Vitamins A and D are only processed by our body through fat, so drinking those vitamins without also drinking the fat is pointless! I have found that by eating the whole version of foods my body is getting the healthy fats it needs and subsequently, it fills up faster. Even "healthy" foods like wheat bread, milk and yogurt can quickly become unhealthy with all the added sugars and processing that goes into them, it's a slow process to educate myself and makes changes to a more wholesome diet.  Just like with all foods, though, it's easy to go overboard, even on good foods, so it's important to always maintain portion control.

Naturally, as I have started to clean up my diet and my family's diet, my focus has also turned to the other things in my life that are harmful to our bodies, things such as household cleaners, medicines and skin care products. Most medicines, especially liquid or chew-able ones like the kids take, have all kinds of sugars and fake dyes in them. I don't know why I would allow my kids to take that stuff when I try to steer them away from pop, juice and other sugary, fake things. Having cleaners that aren't toxic to my family is also important to me since we all touch the surfaces I clean on a daily basis. Our skin is our biggest organ and up until recently I rarely gave a second thought to what kinds of products came in contact with my skin, things like face lotion and Vaporub and sunscreen.  I have started doing essential oils for this very reason.  I want to find more natural ways to replace the foods, cleaners, medicines and other products we use that have harmful dyes and chemicals in them.  It's a journey, always, so I won't be replacing everything at once, but slowly over time, I hope to.  I have already found many uses for the oils and have had really good results, even in just a couple of weeks. We have used oils for cuts/scrapes, a bad rash Ashten had, Chris' and Brayden's allergies and my horrible headaches I get every month.  I still want to make my own cleaners, use oils instead of face lotion, make a cream for Chris' excema and make my own sunscreen.  It makes me feel good that I am doing things naturally in a way that's safe for my family.

Some of my motivations for continuing to improve our healthy, natural lifestyle at home are:

• I want Chris and our kids to love and eat good-for-them foods (which they have already started eating more fruits and veggies, so that's a win!)
• I want to honor God with my body and I want to be able to say to Him that I did the best for my family that I knew how. I cannot learn these things about the foods I was eating and the products I was using, continue to habitually use them and claim I just didn't know any better. Ignorance is not an excuse for me anymore.
• When we bring our daughter home from China, she is going to have some special needs. Which ones and how major/minor we don't know yet, but we do know that food will have been a contributing factor at least the severity of some of her needs and giving her body the nutrients it needs will help equally as much as the better healthcare she will have access to. I want to fight for our daughter's healing as naturally as possible, including good food and using oils!

Before you think I'm totally crazy and way too strict, let me say this: my kids still eat pizza and hot dogs and ice cream and candy, they are not deprived in the least. I know better than to think any of this will work or stick if I force it or if I ban certain foods and products.  I have been giving them a choice still between medicine and oils, hoping they will see a difference in how they feel with the oils. There still is a little bit of an everything-in-moderation attitude, I'm not banning sugar or forcing them to chomp on just celery for dinner (though they do love celery)!

This is definitely a journey and I have found that small changes work better than trying to overhaul everything at once. I am by no means an expert on any of this and I am definitely not trying to come across as judgmental, I just want to journal what has worked for me and remind myself how far I've come. Two years ago I would never have thought I would be where I am today, making my own yogurt and doing essential oils! I joked with Chris the other day after I had just gotten a couple of new maxi skirts for summer that I am becoming more hippie-like all the time, long skirts and all!

Look out, I'm getting more "granola" by the day!

Half my life

Today marks 17 years of Chris and I being together.  We started dating May 9, 1997 when we were 17, we are now 34!

These last 17 years have seen us through a lot and there is no one in the whole entire world I would rather be going through all of it with than Chris!  He's my anchor, he calms and reassures me in a way no one else can.  He also makes me completely happy and completely frustrated in a way no else can either.  He knows me better than anyone and he still loves me, that's saying a lot! We are so complementary as parents, what one of us lacks, the other has and vice versa. We've done a lot of growing up together, to say the least, but we've grown closer in the process and that is invaluable to me. Who knew, 17 years ago when we were just young teenagers that we'd be here today?! This has definitely been the best half of my life!

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

Ashten got to spend a day at work with Chris on Take-Your-Daughter-to-Work Day (which is now technically called Take-Your-Son-or-Daughter-to-Work day to be politically correct and all)!

I was worried she would get bored quickly and then would be a huge distraction while Chris was trying to teach and stuff, but he said she did so good.  She helped pass out papers, grade some stuff and interacted with the students.  She is a little social butterfly, so she throughouly enjoyed the whole day.  She even got to have a special treat for lunch: McDonalds!!  And I got a day off to really live it up, i.e. bra shopping, meal planning and adoption paperwork stuff!!  Woo-hoo!

34

Well I turned 34 on April 23rd.  It wasn't that eventful as far as milestone birthdays go, you know, 33 and 34 are pretty obscure.  But Chris and the kids made it really special and I definitely felt loved and spoiled!

Chris and the boys all had a early release day, so once they were all home, we went out to lunch at Olive Garden.  Yum!  Then we came home and did presents and had some chocolate cake!  They got me some workout shirts, a couple new purses (he found a great deal on some designer purses!) and a speaker to play music from my phone on!  The kids still had piano and church that night, but Preston was sick, so I took the kids to church and Chris stayed home with him.  Then, while they were in AWANA, I came home and hung out with Chris and Preston.  It was a wonderful birthday and I kind of love the times I get to be spoiled like that, it's fun!  And I may or may not have eaten cake for breakfast the next day!  YOLO, as Brayden would say!

When it came time to blow out the candles and make a wish, I'm sure you can all guess what I wished for.  I'll give you a hint: it has to do with a little girl we affectionately call "K"!  Still praying and hoping for a referral soon, ya know!!  And I wouldn't complain if we had to spend my 35th birthday in China.  #justsayin

Easter 2014

Apparently we are in the minority, we don't do Easter baskets, Easter egg hunts, bunnies, jelly beans, ducks, etc.  That's not a celebration of Easter, that's a celebration of spring.  Easter is a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, which as a Christian is 1000 times more exciting than some bunny or chocolate or anything!  Jesus' resurrection means I don't have to live defeated in my sin anymore!  Christ has paid for all my sin, past, present and future and has given me the freedom to live life abundantly in Him!  Now that's something to celebrate!!  I've wrote about this before, so I digress. It's not like we shelter the kids from that stuff, we just don't spend our money or time on it as their parents.  Our poor kids, huh?  Chris' mom usually gets the kids a little something for Easter, a new outfit and some candy or something.  The kids appreciate it and it's fun for them, which is cool!  And this year, our next door neighbor came over the day before Easter and brought each of the kids an Easter basket.  It was so very sweet of her.  She said it was a thank you for all the times the kids had shoveled her driveway throughout the winter.  Which is true, they had shoveled her driveway a few times, but we had them do that because a) they had energy to burn and b) it's good to teach them to help others out.  This reward was so unexpected and very special to them!

Sunday morning we got all dressed up for Easter and headed to church for a pancake breakfast and then church service.  After an amazing and very worshipful church service, we went over to Chris' parents house for a nice relaxing lunch.

There's always gotta be a silly pic!

I've got out of making Easter dinner two years in a row now!!  Last year Logan's birthday was on Easter, so we went out for orange chicken for lunch (you know, just your traditional Easter dinner, haha!).  And now this year Chris' mom is handled everything, and it was delicious!  I could get used to this for sure.  It's not that I hate cooking, I just hate the pressure of making a nice meal on a holiday.  I'm more of a casual, low-key dinner maker.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter too!